Peter Daszaks research addresses the
link between anthropogenic environmental change, wildlife diseases,
public health and conservation. He is especially involved in
research on emerging diseases, in trying to understand their
ecology and the factors that drive emergence. To do this he
investigates anthropogenic environmental changes linked to disease
emergence and how they influence host-parasite population dynamics.
Current projects include studying the ecology of West Nile virus,
Nipah virus (a disease that emerged from fruit bats to kill over
100 humans in Malaysia recently) and other diseases that cross the
wildlife-human boundary. Emerging diseases also affect wildlife
directly and some are responsible for population declines, local
extinctions and even species extinctions. Peter Daszak is working
on wildlife emerging diseases that have conservation significance
(e.g. amphibian chytridiomycosis, Partula snail microsporidiosis,
testing hypothesized examples of extinction by infection). This
work involves looking at the factors that drive emergence. One of
the key processes is the introduction of pathogens through trade in
wildlife, domestic animals, animal products and other materials
("pathogen pollution"). Peter has a number of research projects
investigating the role of trade in the spread of wildlife and human
pathogens and the impact of this on public health and
conservation.

Cunningham, A.A. & Daszak, P. 1998. Extinction of a species of land
snail due to infection with a microsporidian parasite. Conservation Biology
12: 1139-1141.

Other
Information

Peter Daszak is the Executive Director
of the Consortium for Conservation Medicine, a unique collaborative
venture between, Harvard Med Schools Center for Health and the
Global Environment, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Tufts
University School of Veterinary Medicine, USGS National Wildlife
Health Center and Wildlife Trust. The Consortium conducts
collaborative, multidisciplinary research programs and educational
curricula to increase our ecosystem-level understanding of disease.
It acts as a conduit to providing objective information for policy
makers and to formulating practical solutions to disease-driven
extinctions and emerging diseases of humans.